A government ad seeking consultancy services for auditing cost recovery expenses submitted by ExxonMobil has been criticised as “shoddy” and concern expressed that the “deficient” scope of the audit could see Guyana losing millions of dollars.
“It is elementary that if the Terms of Reference or the scope of the engagement are deficient, then the work will be deficient and the objectives not met. With these Terms of Reference as poor as they are, Guyanese must sadly and inevitably brace themselves for the oversight and regulation of the sector to be as bad, if not worse, than (Minister of Natural Resources Raphael) Trotman’s negotiation of the Petroleum Agreement,” accountant Christopher Ram wrote in his Friday column in the Stabroek News.
The ad, placed by the Ministry of Natural Resources, seeks expressions of interest from consultancy firms to conduct an audit of the recoverable contract costs submitted by ExxonMobil and provide on-the-job training to Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Audit Office of Guyana (OAG) staff on cost recovery auditing. The activity falls under the World Bank-sponsored Guyana Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project.